Rev 126 - Feb 4-22, 2010 - Mimas (main target), Tethys, Iapetus, Calypso and mutual events too Options

[belleraphon1]

All

closest look at Mimas ... 30 minutes after periapsis on 02/13/10 at 17:25 UTC

http://ciclops.org/view/6188/Rev126

"Thirty minutes after periapse, ISS will perform a targeted encounter with Saturn's innermost large icy satellite, Mimas. The altitude for this encounter is 9,510 kilometers (5,910 miles) the closest Cassini has ever gotten to this cratered moon. For this encounter, ISS will acquire three mosaics along with another observation where ISS will be riding along with the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). ISS' first mosaic of Mimas, GEOLOG001, will start 30 minutes after closest approach when Cassini is 14,800 kilometers (9,200 miles) away from Mimas. GEOLOG001 is a seven-frame, multi-spectral mosaic of the region surrounding the crater Herschel. Herschel, at 130 kilometers (80 miles) across, is the largest impact basin on Mimas, so large that it caused significant amounts of stress on the lithosphere of the small moon and so distinctive that it helped give the satellite the nickname, "The Death Star Moon." These high-resolution observations of the basin will be used to estimate the age of the crater. Scientists will count the number of smaller craters on the basin floor, compared to other regions on Mimas, to set limits on how old the basin can be. The second mosaic, GEOLOG002, will also be a seven-frame, multi-spectral mosaic, this time covering most of the visible surface of Mimas, shown above left. The best resolutions for these two observations will be 87 meters (285 feet) per pixel for GEOLOG001 and 191 meters (626 feet) per pixel GEOLOG002. Next, Cassini will ride-along with a CIRS FP3 temperature map of Mimas' day side, acquiring six narrow-angle-camera images during the scan. Finally, ISS will acquire a full-frame, multispectral observation (GLOCOL001) of Mimas' anti-Saturn hemisphere from a distance of 70,000 kilometers (44,000 miles). Saturn will provide a backdrop for this observation."

Glorious

Craig

[volcanopele]

Don't forget poor little Calypso.

[jasedm]

Yes, I'm glad that Calypso is getting a closer inspection on this rev - it'll be interesting to see how subdued the craters are compared to it's sibling Lagrange moon Telesto

This will mean that everything bigger than a kilometre or so within Hyperion's orbit will have been imaged by Cassini from less than 75,000km, except for Pan, Daphnis, Anthe and Methone - quite an achievement in itself.

Really looking forward to Mimas - I wonder if there'll be more visible faulting around Herschel at the higher resolution?

[DrShank]

waiting in a snowstorm in DC to see if my train will depart on schedule . . .

Just posted some background info, data, and mosaics related to the upcoming Mimas encounter, including a rotating Mimas movie with the latest global mosaic, on my blog. (the movie is too large to upload here)

http://stereomoons.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwWBZFIBkr0

enjoy!

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[belleraphon1]

Very Cool Dr. Shank!!

I cannot wait!

Thanks.

Craig

[scalbers]

Nice to see Dr. Shank's color map update. Here is my latest (in B&W) for comparison:

[scalbers]

"Live" shot via Celestia:

[scalbers]

Here's a little movie...

 mimas9.avi ( 835.5K ) Number of downloads: 540


Near closest approach (WAC FOV) at 1713UTC



View around 1750UTC - looks more elliptical again



"Live" Herschel NAC field of view at 1814UTC

[peter59]

Latest "live" shot at 1713UTC

Thanks

[Hungry4info]

Very much looking forward to images!

[peter59]

Calypso !
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...7/N00151487.jpg
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...7/N00151500.jpg

[volcanopele]

Just an FYI: the play back earlier was a short one, only running 2 hrs 20 mins. So we only managed to play back some of the data acquired during the periapse period, like the Calypso images and some images acquired of Saturn's haze layers while Cassini was in the planet's shadow. There is another playback period tonight and that one is the normal, 9 hours long. The Mimas data were carried over to that one.

[ugordan]

Eclipse view from Feb 13, WAC RGB:


Hmm, the more I look at this, the more it seems I've got it upside down. The rings look as if it's their unlit side, but their shadow should definitely not fall onto Saturn's northern hemisphere. Perhaps it's just the low illumination making this high phase view look unlit. Hence Cassini being above the ring plane and looking "down" onto the rings.

Edit #2: Yep, it's upside down. The parallax motion is only consistent with Cassini orbiting prograde if the image is rotated. Here's the correct orientation and some brightness/saturation enhancement.

[Astro0]

Wow, Calypso looks like a neat little place
Quick animation.

[Adam Hurcewicz]

I stack to color image from this:

N00151479 ( R )
N00151479 ( G )
N00151478 ( B )

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